Encrypted Database Analytics via Homomorphic Augmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current encrypted database architectures, such as CryptDB, lack strong security properties and leak information during SQL queries, particularly when executing WHERE queries, due to the use of deterministic encryption and order-preserving encryption.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for generating an encrypted database that supports conditional queries by augmenting the plaintext database with additional columns for attributes, encrypting the database using semantically secure additively homomorphic cryptosystems, and processing queries in the encrypted domain without decryption, ensuring privacy and security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If deterministic encryption is used to support SQL WHERE queries, then query functionality is improved, but information leakage occurs to untrusted parties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the encryption parameter from deterministic encryption to semantically secure homomorphic encryption. This allows the system to maintain query functionality while preventing information leakage, as the new encryption scheme does not reveal patterns in the encrypted data that could be exploited by untrusted parties.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (the trusted server or data owner) that holds the decryption keys and performs selective decryption only for query results. This intermediary prevents direct access to plaintext data by untrusted parties while still enabling query functionality through encrypted computations.
2Productivity
If order-preserving encryption is used to maintain data ordering, then query efficiency is improved, but security properties are weakened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the encryption approach from order-preserving encryption to homomorphic encryption with augmented database structure. This allows the system to maintain security properties while achieving query efficiency through the ability to perform computations directly on encrypted data and use metadata columns for efficient filtering.
3Reliability
If traditional encryption is used to protect data privacy, then security is improved, but analytics capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the encryption system multi-functional by using homomorphic encryption that supports both security (privacy preservation) and analytics (encrypted computations). The augmented database structure with metadata columns further enhances this universality by enabling both secure storage and efficient query processing on the same encrypted data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary actions by augmenting the database structure before encryption, adding metadata columns that enable efficient query processing. This preliminary structuring allows the encrypted database to maintain analytics capability without compromising security, as the metadata is designed to work with the homomorphic encryption scheme.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method is provided for generating an encrypted database. The method includes: receiving a plaintext database having plaintext data entries in one or more columns; augmenting the received plaintext database to generate an augmented plaintext database, the augmenting including the addition of one or more columns to the received plaintext database, each added column corresponding to an attribute which is to be made available for conditional queries; and encrypting the augmented plaintext database to generate the encrypted database including encrypted data entries. The encrypted database supports at least one form of conditional query for those attributes corresponding to the added columns, the at least one form of conditional query being computed on the encrypted data entries without the decryption thereof to produce an encrypted result.